automatic intentional foul

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

By rule a foul that does any of the following can be deemed an intentional:
1. neutralizes an opponent's obvious advantageous position

FWIW I would probably deem the play in the OP an intentional personal foul. The OP even said that his teammate made sure to foul. The guy simply wanted to prevent an easy scoring opportunity for his opponent. I think that the official made a great decision.

Here's the problem. This train of thought implies that you could have two entirely different calls in situations depending on the positioning of the two players, where the defender uses exactly the same amount of contact and makes the same play on the ball . If A1 is "ahead" of B1 towards the hoop, you would call it intentional, but if he was not, you wouldn't. IMHO, a foul without excessive contact that occurs when the defender is making a legitimate play for the ball is not an intentional foul, and I will not change my call just because the ball handler was on one side of the defender rather than on the other.